ESPN "is about to put the American appetite for
football to the test," as it "has come up with a simple
strategy" to pay for its new $4.8B NFL TV deal: "Bombard the
world with football," according to Leslie Cauley of the WALL
STREET JOURNAL. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic Sports will
air more than 642.5 hours of football programming this
season, or "enough to fill 26 days of broadcasting round-
the-clock." Included will be 400 hours of "support
programming" for the 18 Sunday night games. Several media
buyers said that both ABC and ESPN "tried to push through
ad-rate boosts of 25% or more earlier this year, but lately
have scaled back the increases." DeWitt Media Chair Gene
DeWitt "contends that ESPN and ABC still are sitting on big
chunks of football inventory, leaving both a little more
flexible on price." ESPN "declines to comment," while an
ABC spokesperson said that the net is "happy with the way
things are progressing." ESPN told cable operators that it
"thought they could charge on the order" of $60 per 1,000
viewers for ad rates during NFL games, but Cauley writes
that cable companies "say they would be lucky to get $40,
with most saying $35 to $38 is a more reasonable
expectation" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/17).
